1998 audio adaptation by Michael Bakewell of Christie's 1941 mystery,
in five 30-minute episodes. The (in)famous actress is brazenly
conducting an affair, and it's not really a surprised when she turns
up strangled, but everyone has an alibi…
It's another peak Christie; perhaps the murder plot is a bit
convoluted, not to mention repeating the effect of relying on the
reader not to make a certain assumption which Christie had used
herself a few years earlier, but the business is well-handled.
There are a couple of unfortunate performances, though: Wendy Craig
does a very grotty "American" accent as Mrs Gardener, and Lindsey
Fawcett as the 16-year-old Linda Marshall gives some line readings so
flat that they sound like someone being deliberately unconvincing.
(The character is supposed to be "young for her age", yes, but the
19-year-old Fawcett sounds like a pre-teenage child.) Sabina Franklyn
does a game job with a minor part as Rosamund Darnley, but the real
star for me was Susannah Corbett as Christine Redfern the put-upon
wife.
The production is light on background effects, and if it never perhaps
sounds quite as open and airy as it should, this doesn't detract from
the human dramas.
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